DPS: Criminal Photo Tickets Now Treated as Civil

Phoenix New Times reports that the effort (read: cost) to process criminal speeding tickets captured by photo enforcement was simply too much for DPS to handle, so DPS has made a “business decision” to improve the profit margin of the beleaguered automated ticketing program by treating criminal violations the same as civil. For those familiar with the rights bestowed upon all citizens by our founders, yes, this is yet another assault on the federal and Arizona state constitutions which have been abandoned in the quest to raise revenue for the state.

No law shall be enacted granting to any citizen, class of citizens, or corporation other than municipal, privileges or immunities which, upon the same terms, shall not equally belong to all citizens or corporations.

As Justice Keagan and others have repeatedly point out, photo enforcement creates a class of citizens (those receiving criminal speeding tickets from automated ticketing machines) who are treated differently than another class of citizens (those who receive tickets from live officers). This was always the case with civil speed violations. For civil speeding tickets, the difference is the fine amount and assessment of license points. For criminal tickets now, the difference is the entire classification of the offense, as well as fine amount and license points. That doesn’t sound like equal protection, does it?

And while we’re at it…

Did you know that your state legislators are immune to photo enforcement while the legislature is in session? That’s right! The state constitution exempts all lawmakers from civil prosecution while they are in session.

CameraFRAUD Connect:

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 7:23 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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Talk about bull shit. Our state has become pathetic. I am going to talk with people and do some reading of my own to vote out the people in office that are coming up with this crap! And I am going to write down the information that I come up with and hand it out to people when I collect signatures, so they vote these pathetic excuses out of office. I am wondering who voted for this crap in our (the people’s) place????

What we have today are the criminals posing as peace and law enforcement officers fleecing the people under the color of law. They’re just doing their job like they did in Germany. Since when did you need a driver license or titling of your vehicle when you are traveling in your private capacity? The whole foundation of our liberty and freedom is to be able to go where we need or want to go by any means necessary without being herassed, hindered or stopped by these road pirates unless they have full reason to believe a crime is being committed or you are a danger to other travelers. WAKE UP SHEEPLE. The entire institution we call the DMV is a racketeering fraud fleecing the general public with their licensing and titling of your private vehicles along with all their commercial vehicle codes and rules that they have been doing for generations. America, the land of the free? None are more enslaved then those who think they are free.
Do the research.

Well, with the technology we have now, wouldn’t “law enforcement” officers become obsolete?

The new Phoenix/Redflex contract allows for “solution expansion” which includes secondary violations and enforcement. These could include:

Right hand turn, left hand turn violations
Failure to wear seatbelt
Expired tags
HOV lane compliance
Light rail cams
Point to point speed assessment (used overseas already)
Expired Insurance coverage, expired license plates
Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) to monitor and track the movements of drivers (used overseas already)
Engine brake noise enforcement system, a calibrated microphone is used. (used overseas already).
Airborne speed camera equipment – used in Australia to monitor speed, driver fatigue, whether driver is wearing a seatbelt or talking on a cell phone. Tickets will be generated for vehicle owners if the driver or passengers are spotted without a seatbelt or if the driver uses a mobile phone. For the latter offense, the state will collect $338. and impose four points.http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/29/2994.asp#source

You should see how they check their systems and (presumably) download the pictures. They hook a laptop up to the machine via serial cable; I wonder what operating system the laptop, and the camera, runs? I saw a guy in action with the camera back open at Rio Salado and McClintock (by Tempe Marketplace), but as I had to race to work, I was unable to stop, go up to them, and observe the system more closely.

I just cannot understand why all of you get so upset with this photo radar speed enforcement. Don’t you understand that it is merely a “tax” levied by the government. Of course it is to raise money..(DUH!) But the beauty of this tax, is that it is optional. You don’t have to pay unless you want to pay. It is like the indian gambling casinos or the lottery. They are designed to take money from the uneducated, the simple and the stupid and give it to the government or the indian tribes. But this tax is like those other taxes in so far that it is “optional”. No one forces you to drive over the speed limit just as no one forces you to go to an indian casino. You should be in favor of the speed cameras. You should be marching to support the companies that are allowing you and others to choose lower taxes. Why not encourage the government to tax the simpletons who are not sophisticated enough to avoid these taxes??? I just don’t understand you strange people. Nate

“The use of automated cameras has increased the number of innocent motorists being pulled over by police in the UK. Officials there have widely deployed Automated Number Plate Recognition (ANPR — ALPR in the US) cameras in order to identify paperwork-related violations that can generate substantial revenue. Errors on the part of drivers, the police and the cameras themselves are causing problems.

“Over the past few months we have seen a sharp rise in the number of ‘mistaken identity’ cases,” AA Insurance director Simon Douglas said in a press release. “Where we used to get one or two calls per month from police to verify whether a motorist they have stopped is insured for this reason, it’s now 20 or more per week.”
”

“A speed camera in Tacoma, Washington issued tickets to motorists who were driving the correct speed limit in a school zone. Redflex Traffic Systems, the Australian company in charge of the program, installed the automated ticketing machine last month on Pacific Avenue near Stewart Middle School in an area where the speed limit is lowered from 30 MPH to 20 MPH when the school zone warning lights flashed. As the Tacoma News-Tribune reported, the camera issued tickets to vehicles traveling at the legal speed of 30 MPH when the lights were not flashing. Officials admitted the error and claim that they have corrected the problem, but the burden is on vehicle owners who received a ticket for driving the speed limit to take time off work to file a court challenge.”

“The city of Scottsdale, Arizona agreed to cancel speed camera fines issued to 589 innocent motorists. Between December 7 and January 4, a broken piezo sensor embedded in the pavement caused speed estimates to read high at the Shea Boulevard camera located between 120th and 124th Streets.”

Nothing like confusing facts with false opinions from the pro camera crusade.

I took a drive down SB 51 to WB 10, then on the westside, I went North on the 101. I haven’t been that way in ages. I felt like I was driving in some communist country, there were speed cameras everywhere. It just makes me sick to my stomach that people are allowing this happen. These things are popping up everywhere and we know there’s a far more sinister purpose to these things than just the proclaimed safety benefits everyone swears by. If these things stay, I think I’m going to pack up and get the hell out of this communist state. It’s not about being able to speed. I’ve never received a speeding ticket yet but I hate those things with a passion because they’re unconstitutional and because a for-profit private corporation has a hand in law enforcement. Seriously, this is very wrong…

Pathetic bunch of greedy (insert inappropriate term(s) here).. There are other ways the city and state can raise revenue without pissing people off in the process. Reducing some big fat government salaries and unnecessary costly expenditures (ex: expensive hotels and meals) is a good place to start.

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